UK city council

Challenge
A UK City Council had commissioned a supplier to develop and implement a CRM solution to be used by its staff for one of its social services.

They wanted re-assurance through an independent verification that prior to expanding its solution to include new services, the existing CRM architecture would meet required performance, scalability and availability criteria.

This was particularly important because the planned new services to be rolled out related to socially sensitive services provided by the Council where a failure of their IT support would be highly visible.

The challenge consisted of three areas:

• Verify that the new services were scaleable, to allow the Council to grow the user-base for the new services
• Verify that the proposed architecture was scaleable, to allow the Council to confidently roll-out new services
• Ensure that the overall system had no potential performance issues

Solution
Independent IT security specialist, NCC Group was brought on board to carry out the test.

The first step was to liaise with the supplier and city council to agree the scope of testing to be undertaken and the best approach for testing within the tight timescales.

NCC Group created test materials and test scenarios for the performance evaluation and conducted independent testing, observed and supported by the supplier's engineers.

Having determined which user tasks had a high impact and which user activities were most influential on the performance of the system, a representative load was created and test scenarios based upon the objectives devised.

A test campaign was conducted consisting of load, stress and soak testing.

Result
Following the test, NCC Group analysed the measurements and correlated the results into an independent, clear and concise report, including results interpretation and risk analysis.

Paul Vlissidis, Head of Ethical Security Testing, NCC Group commented: “Our approach is to maximise testing across the most vulnerable areas, in the least possible time in order to ensure that project deadlines are met. Our solutions are designed to form the basis of a longer-term test life cycle. All the technology deployed in the project is re-usable in the long term.”

NCC Group provide the concept of a total test solution, i.e. it does not seek to only supply test tools but a testing solution which involves test technology and testing consultants. Its test experts analyse and recommend real solutions to allow organisations to focus on their customers.

NCC Group is a leading global provider of independent IT assurance, security and consultancy services. As a trusted advisor, we help over 15,000 public, private and not for profit sector organisations, including 92 of the FTSE 100, to make the most efficient use of information and technology and to manage the associated risks.

Challenge

Independent test report including results interpretation and risk analysis. Test strategy, test specifications, performance test scripts and repeatable performance test methodology.

Solution

NCC Group created test materials and test scenarios for the performance evaluation and conducted independent testing, observed and supported by the supplier's engineers.

Result

Following the test, NCC Group analysed the measurements and correlated the results into an independent, clear and concise report, including results interpretation and risk analysis